I recently had a shoulder cut into. Was thought I had a slap tear, I did not...was just a gigantic bone spur. While in there she also finished off my bicep tendon, there was only a few fibers left holding it on. She did not clean out the rather extensive arthritis, she told me that once they go in and scrape it away it will just return with a vengeance. Something about once it is removed your body sees it as an injury and will produce more calcium to help heal itself...which in turn will only lead to more arthritis....or something like that.
Sorry for getting off subject.....but my doc has told me that he wants me to wait as long as I can for a fusion....with the thought being they may be able to just fuse a large area once instead of a going in multiple times.
Neighbor had that laser spinal cord deal done to ease the stenosis pain. 3 days later he was back under the gas again, apparently while they were in there they ruptured another disc. After the second issue was resolved and Sam went thru months of therapy he was off the pain meds...for 6 months....seems another area developed stenosis. Seen it mentioned earlier, as we age we all stand a good chance of degenerative disc disease. fact of life.....and often time ddd leads to stenosis...fact of life.....used to joke with a woman I worked with at the USPS...show me some one who has worked here for 25 years who does not hurt and you will be looking at some one who never worked...
Nuff rambling....need to hope on the scooter and go to town...again....Hope all is well with everyone...